Eclipsed
by ceffyldwfr
Summary: Edward couldn't take Bella's scent in the beginning, and he leaves. Bella is left in the wake of an uncarved future, and things will change for everyone, including the werewolves. Especially Jacob. B/J
1. And Gone

Chapter One

"It was just a year or two, and then the girl would disappear. She would go on with her life—she would _have_ a life to go on with. She'd go to college somewhere, get older, start a career, perhaps marry someone." –Edward Cullen, _Midnight Sun_

The morning after my first words with Edward Cullen, I checked the strange, quiet stillness outside my window, only to find a blanket of ice sheathed over everything, including the grass and the roads. A couple of icicles clung and clinked against each other in the tree as a single gusting breeze rocked them. I shivered.

Downstairs, Charlie's coat and gun were long gone, and so I hurried through breakfast to beat the little morning traffic I thought there would be in the precarious conditions. Thoughts of light eyes drifted across my vision as I ate, making my appetite less than non-existent as the excitement to see them again grew. His eyes…so strange, so sparkling. They drew me in as if I was some kind of helpless prey. But before, when they were black—I grimaced in remembrance of the wild glare he'd given me. What had I ever done to him?

I set the bowl in the sink and ran the faucet until the milky water ran clear, and then I put on my only pair of boots and stumbled into the clear, frozen morning. Too nervous to notice anything except the snow, drifting a little across the road, I slid over the last step and on my butt. Wincing, I regained my balance and stared at my feet until I made it to my truck, safe for the moment.

Perhaps ten miles an hour was a little slow-going on the road, and maybe I'd been there in time to snag a closer parking space if I'd pushed the truck a little more, but the risk of falling again in the parking lot was much less a risk than dying on Main Street and taking out a bunch of other cars in the process.

When I pulled into a spot in the back of the lot, I gingerly stepped down and glanced at the rear tire, all wrapped in something silver. I edged along the truck bed until I was close enough to see that someone, Charlie, had put snow chains on my tires, which was the reason I hadn't slid once in my drive. I felt all choked up for a moment, as Charlie must've gotten up God knows how early just to do something nice for me.

In my silent thankfulness for Charlie, I heard a screeching sound that seemed to be getting louder. Before I could fully turn around and react, I glimpsed a van, brakes squealing, just feet from hurtling into me. At the last second, I tried to make my escape, but in my haste, I slipped to the ground on the black ice and knocked my head against the pavement and into darkness.

"Damn it!"

I catapulted back to reality in my head, trying not to move from the pain throbbing behind my left temple. Someone had spoken aloud, cursing and hitting something metal. Two voices conversing, but one sounded more familiar, gruff, and angrier.

"It was an accident; I promise!"

"Your license is revoked, I can promise you that," the angry voice said. It sounded like Charlie, but with my eyes closed, I could only assume it was him.

I opened my eyes and tried to sit up, but immediately felt a gloved hand on my shoulder that was soft, but firmly keeping my body from lifting. On my other side, a pale doctor—too young to ever be considered a doctor's age—was looking down at me with a calming smile on his lips. He, too, had eyes just like Edward's, creamy and golden, and the palest powdery skin I'd seen. And there I was, calling myself albino.

"Hello, Bella," he breathed, and in my mind, I felt a deep panic settle in. Had I died? I squirmed against his arm, but discovered the painful response in my chest as I moved. "You've broken a rib. It will be a little while to heal, but for now, you shouldn't try to sit up at all. We haven't finished treating you."

"Oh." I couldn't think of anything better to say.

"I'm Dr. Cullen, Bella." He shook my hand lightly. I couldn't stop my mouth from falling open. Edward's adopted father, Dr. Cullen? Why did they look so much alike if they weren't actually related? Maybe Jessica got her facts wrong.

With a couple of fluid motions that didn't look like steps, he was around my bed and next to my father. "She'll be fine, but she will need help sometimes. The whole healing process could take up to six weeks."

My father looked relieved by one minute eye change, but he glanced at me worriedly and turned back to Dr. Cullen. "I—I don't think—will I need to send her back to her mother? The stairs in our house—"

"She'll be able to manage those after a couple days, but she won't be able to stand up for very long. Dizziness is a common symptom of broken ribs, as is confusion. The best thing for her right now is to lay down, get lots of rest, and not fly on any planes." Dr. Cullen smiled and made a few notes on his clipboard.

"Looks like I won't be making dinner for the next couple of days," I croaked out, trying feebly to make a joke to Charlie. He didn't laugh, but instead, looked more concerned than ever.

"Don't worry about dinner, Bells. I'll take care of it. Is there a certain diet for her, Dr. Cullen?"

"No, any food will do. I have to check on Tyler, but when I get him ready to go, I'll come back and teach you some of the breathing exercises you'll need to do while you recover." He nodded to us once more and turned to Tyler, who was in the doorway. "We can go back to your room now, Tyler."

"Bella, I am so sorry," Tyler gushed and disappeared from the doorway.

Charlie muttered something to himself and sat in a chair next to me. "When Dr. Cullen comes back, I'll go call your mother."

"Wait, did you tell her?" I felt my heart rate go up.

He nodded.

I sighed. "She's probably just freaking out right now. I wouldn't be surprised if she's already on a plane here." Suddenly, a whoosh of painkillers swept through my head, and the room began to wobble. I looked at Charlie's frazzled expression and mumbled some reassurance. "I'm fine, though. Tell her I'll call soon."

He noticed my head going round in circles as I tried to focus. "Just get some sleep until Dr. Cullen gets back." I nodded slowly and closed my eyes.

Dr. Cullen didn't come in for about fifteen minutes while I struggled to stay awake. Charlie left sometime in between, mumbling something about pizza for dinner. I lay in bed, trying not to move, though the painkillers were definitely doing their job, but finally, Dr. Cullen slipped in and approached when he saw that my eyes were open.

"Will I be going home today?"

"Most likely. I just need to see that all your vitals are good, and make sure you know the proper breathing techniques. Otherwise, there's a chance you could get pneumonia." Dr. Cullen grabbed my wrist and felt the pulse in it with his gloved hand, which still felt cold despite the latex between us.

I thought of Edward's similarly cold touch, when we accidentally bumped hands during the biology lab. He'd been absent before that day for a week straight. Dr. Cullen was a doctor; he might've known what the reason behind Edward's changing eye colors was, and so I spoke, "Has Edward been okay? He was absent for a while. I'm his partner in biology, and I don't want him doing all the lab work for the both of us while I'm out."

Not that we had anymore labs coming soon that I knew of, but the lie came out so organically that it could've convinced me that it was true.

Dr. Cullen paused from his examination and looked at me. "Well, Edward isn't coming back to Forks High School, Bella. He transferred to a school—up in Alaska—where his birth parents live."

"Oh!" I flinched and blushed. "I'm sorry. I just was a little worried when he didn't show up for a few days."

"He has been a little ill; the cold weather in Alaska really clears his head."

"That's good." I nodded slowly, still embarrassed. Dr. Cullen looked upset by his adopted son's absence. I felt a tugging in my chest that wasn't from the rib pain that left me wondering exactly who Edward was. But he was gone: a mystery that would never be solved. I tried to let his image disappear from my cloudy head, but those eyes were permanent in my memory in a strange way.

"Bella? You have a contusion right above your left temple, but it is minor." Dr. Cullen interrupted my staring and began to explain the proper way to breathe. In the latter part of his explanation, Charlie came in and sat in a chair in the corner until the instructions were finished. "All right, Charlie, I'm going to get the nurse, and we'll have a wheelchair ready for her to go."

He nodded. "Feeling okay, Bells?"

"Yup," I said, trying to pull myself up through the pain and the dizzy-making painkillers.

The wheelchair came, attached to a very smiley nurse. "Here you go, sweetie!" Her voice was like sugar. "We'll take you through the lobby so everyone in your class who showed can see that you're okay. No one left since you arrived."

I felt my stomach turn a little. "Uh, we can't go out the back or something?"

"Everyone is really worried, sweetie. We can't leave them hanging!"

"Maybe you can't," I mumbled.

We flew through the white hallways that seemed to get smaller and smaller as we approached the lobby. I could hear the raucous laughter and chattering as Charlie opened the double doors and revealed the colorful walls that tried to cheer up the sick with bright animation in the pictures.

"Bella!" Several squeals rang out from the crowd, and Jessica was the first to run up to me and give me a hand squeeze, as the nurse announced straight away that no hugs were allowed.

"Oh my gosh, Bella! That was so scary. I've never seen a car crash before. It gave me a heart attack!" she gushed. "You have cuts all over you!"

Behind her, Angela smiled and waved, but didn't come forward. I was grateful, because it felt as though I was suffocating from the attention already. She called, "I'll come visit you!" as the nurse started pushing again towards the exit.

"They all really like you," Charlie commented as they unloaded me into the backseat of the cruiser.

"Yeah," I responded, falling asleep before the door shut.


	2. Stories

Chapter Two

"Bells?" Charlie called from downstairs as I began my momentous first descent from my bedroom to the living room by myself. I shuffled along the wall in some dirty slippers Charlie found for me, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear to see the long way down.

"I got it!" I yelled back, but the pain from my chest made me stumble a bit from the yelling.

"Are you sure you want to go back to school Monday?" He watched me as I clung to the banister and took each step deliberately.

Before I spoke, I took in a breath like Dr. Cullen said to, and then responded, "Yeah, I mean, I'll have this weekend to get better. Today, tomorrow, and Sunday is long enough, I think."

"We'll just wait until Sunday night to know for sure."

I didn't answer. A week was long enough to be out of school. I was already new; I didn't want to be considered the freak who never leaves her house, either. Until I took the last step and rested my feet on flat floor, Charlie didn't stray from the bottom of the staircase. The worry lines on his forehead were getting deeper, and all the diner food I assumed he'd been having while he was out was surely going to give him a heart attack. Tonight, I promised myself, I would make him something healthy.

"I've got to get to the station, but I bought some bagels and cereal for you so you don't have to make something big for breakfast."

"Thanks," I murmured, noting the table in the kitchen set up for my passing through.

Charlie looked as though he might give me a hug, but he seemed to think better of it and turned towards the door. "I'm having Billy over tonight, if you don't mind. We'll be watching the game."

"That's fine, I don't mind."

He nodded, and shut the door quietly, leaving me to my morning routine. Breakfast, breathe in, breathe out, put the cereal bowl in the sink, scoot to the couch, watch TV, and space out. This time, however, I didn't think about Phoenix or my mother; I thought of Edward and his strange qualities. Perhaps he was angry at his birth parents for finally taking him back that day, or maybe he was frustrated with moving. That look, though. It didn't seem like he was angry at an outside cause, but directly at me.

Edward was just a mystery I'd never know. His black eyes, that first day, and then golden when he returned, with a new, pleasant demeanor? As far as I was concerned, eye color did not designate mood. I hadn't seen him enough to know if this was a possible theory. Just two days.

I recalled my small collection of books upstairs, and after what seemed like hours of careful maneuvering, I was back on the couch with my well-worn Wuthering Heights copy. The TV in the background didn't distract me, but after about twenty minutes, the door swung open.

"Hey, Bells." Charlie walked in, looking a little ragged and sweaty.

The clock showed that it was only nearing noon, nowhere close to the time that Charlie normally returned from the station. I set the book on the end table and tried to sit up a little. "Everything okay?"

"Just a little snag. A couple car accidents in town to take care of, and…well, promise me you won't go in the woods any time soon." He truly looked concerned as he hung up his gun and sat down in the armchair.

I laughed a little. "I promise. Why, though?"

"We've been receiving some reports of attacks, and up north, missing persons after hikes," Charlie said, walking into the kitchen and coming back with a plain bagel.

"What kind of attacks?"

"Animals, they're thinking. So far, only the northern forests have been targeted, but there's no telling what a wild animal can do, or where it can go."

I bit my lip and scrunched my eyebrows together. "No hiking excursions for me anytime soon," I said, pretending to look sad. "And with all this energy, too."

He looked at me. "I gotta get back to the station, but I wrote the number on a piece of paper in the kitchen if you need anything." And with that, he reattached his gun and slipped into the cold, leaving me to wonder why he'd stopped by in the first place. He had been eating at the diner lately for lunch, and I didn't usually see him until the afternoon.

I didn't feel too lonely for very long, because after school, Angela stopped by and asked how I was feeling. She and Jessica were planning a trip to Port Angeles to go dress shopping. It was almost a relief to have the broken rib, just so that I could pass on the whole dance thing altogether.

"Too bad you can't come, Bella," Angela said.

"I'm not really into dancing anyways. Clumsy." I shrugged and tried to tuck my legs underneath me.

"Well, that's all right. So, you're coming back on Monday? We all miss you!"

"Most likely."

The five o'clock news came on TV at that moment, silencing us with its first announcement. "Attacks in the forests south of Seattle have left many in a panic. Find out what these attacks are thought to be after the weather."

Bantering with the anchorwoman, the meteorologist returned with, "It's a little cold and windy, Dana. What do you think the weather will be like tomorrow?"

Angela turned to me with wide eyes. "Have you heard anything about attacks?"

"Not really, just that they might be animals, and that people are disappearing."

Her phone vibrated. "Oh, that's Jessica. She's ready to go. Well, I'm glad you're feeling better, Bella! Hopefully we'll see you on Monday."

"Have fun shopping!"

"'Kay, see you!"

"Bye."

All was quiet once again as Angela left. The weatherman continued to entertain the anchorwoman with his jokes until she could handle no more and said, "Back to those attacks, Jim; a local officer was quoted as saying that 'the attacks are severe, but seem to be localized in one path along the forest.'"

Path? I turned the television off with the remote and looked at the clock. Charlie was going to be home any minute now that it was after five. I'd get the real facts of the story from him, though my last pain pill had started kicking in. My eyes began to droop as the door clicked open and in rolled a dark-skinned man with long hair and the beginnings of wrinkled skin under his eyes.

"Bells?" Charlie called before he entered. "I brought Billy!"

"She's in here falling asleep at the sight of me," Billy yelled back to him and laughed.

I shook my head to clear it from the exhaustion. "I'm sorry! It's been a long day, and—"

But before I could finish my sentence, in strolled the likeness of Billy, but much younger and more built than him, but I didn't exactly recognize him. His russet skin seemed like it was bronzing still, even though he was standing in the living room, as far away from the sun as possible. I blushed at the realization that I was unabashedly gawking at the kin of Billy right in front of him.

Charlie came in with two pizzas and a smile. "That's Jacob, Bells. Billy's son."

I threw the covers off me and started to get up, noticing that I was taking up the whole couch, and though Billy didn't need a place to sit, Jacob might've had to sit on top of me if I fell asleep under the warmth of the covers. The chill seeped through my sweats, but I tried to ignore it and focus on the pizzas, because getting to them meant eating something warm. I was a little frustrated with Charlie, but then I remembered that I hadn't told him I was going to make dinner. Tomorrow, I promised myself, I'd make something healthier.

The first pizza was pepperoni and already half-devoured. Devoured because the pizza wasn't cut into slices where it was already missing, but instead torn on jagged edges and cheese-less along those edges. "Sorry," a thick, rich voice said into my ear. "I got hungry on the way."

I felt a shiver ripple down my back, so it was all I could do not to turn and bruise my ribs even more just to get a glimpse of the attractive radiance behind me. "That's fine," I said, sounding as nonchalant as could be while I dug in the drawer below the silverware, almost cutting myself when I found the pizza cutter.

"Want me to do that? Charlie said you were injured."

Though he was cute, I was not helpless. "No, I got it," I said with a slight edge in my voice.

Jacob picked up on it. "Okay, sorry." He sat at the table and laughed.

I served myself a slice after I cut off the jagged pieces, which Jacob proceeded to smash in his face. This was a little awkward, trying to make conversation with a guy I barely knew, and especially an attractive guy. So, instead of talking, I ate my pizza slowly, deliberately, with care. And I did not dare make eye contact, because the blood flow to my cheeks was so instant that he'd catch on right away.

"You probably don't remember me, but you used to hang out with my sisters when Charlie came for fishing. That was a while ago."

Fishing trips. Wet, cold; I shuddered. "I remember a little," I said.

"I was barely talking then," Jacob commented, chuckling and improving my memory of the image a little boy surrounded by his toys I recalled while his sisters showed me around the tiny house.

He was still looking at me; I didn't know what to say to this enormous boy I didn't even know, so I nibbled at my pizza and tried not to look at all uncomfortable in his stare. For a while, the only sounds came from the television. Until Jacob started swaying in his seat, I forgot he was even there. I was still distracted with thoughts of Edward. He seemed like he'd planned to come back to school, or at least, didn't seem like he was leaving. But what did I know? I barely knew the guy.

Jacob cleared his throat and touched his forehead with a confused expression on his face.

"You okay?" I wasn't sure what to ask. He looked like he was going to pass out.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The pizza's just trying to come up for round two, I think." He shook his head, and his face returned to the calm it was before. "So, having fun in Forks, the wettest place in the entire world?"

I grimaced. "Uh, it's okay, but I prefer hot, sunny weather. Like Phoenix."

"That where you came from? Charlie mentioned Arizona when he talked about you."

"Yeah," I said, trailing off.

"So, what do you do for fun? Sit around and pretend like you're not in pain?" He gestured to my ribs with a smirk. "Or is staring off into space the way to go for you?"

With a frown, I stood up and said indignantly, "No, I like other things!"

"Like what?"

"Like reading classic novels and—"

"And going to the hospital," he interrupted in a mocking tone.

"You're going to have to go to the hospital pretty soon if you keep mocking me," I threatened. Jacob laughed at my obvious weakness as I returned to the empty seat. "You can meet my doctor, Dr. Cullen."

Before, he was laughing, but he immediately grew quiet at the mention of going to the doctor.

"What's wrong with that? Don't like doctors?" I figured I'd found something to mock him with, as his taunting was seriously running its course, so I kept at it.

"Not doctors. Just the Cullens. They're weird."

"You could say that. But when did you meet them? You don't go to Forks High School, do you?"

"I go to school on the rez, and I've never actually met the Cullens. They don't come to La Push." His voice was rougher as he said that last bit, and for some reason, it sent chills racking through me.

"As in, they don't like it there? Or they're not allowed?"

"It's a little complicated. But it doesn't really matter anyways, because they seem like preppy, spoiled kids anyways—from what I've heard." He shrugged and grabbed another piece of pizza.

I, however, was not letting this go. They were so odd, out of place, and that someone other than me had noticed this intrigued me. "I don't mind 'complicated.' Tell me what you've heard?"

"Well," he said between bites, "it's just a scary story, really."

I listened to him tell a chilling tale of ageless creatures that fed from humans and the wolf creatures that his 'ancestors' turned into to protect the village from the killers. I smirked when he had finished. "Really?" was all I could say.

"It's stupid, I know. My dad told me that story a long time ago, and my friends and I have all been bothered by the Cullen name ever since."

"Wait, the Cullens just moved here. How could your dad tell you a story about people he didn't even know?"

"Maybe they just moved _back_."

The chills returned as goose bumps on my bare arms.

"You have goose bumps," he said with a laugh.

"You have to admit, that's a little freaky."

"I guess, but—" He stopped, suddenly overcome with a look of pure sickness.

"Uh, Jacob?"

He didn't look at me, but turned to the doorway and ran upstairs, shutting the bathroom door with a loud snap and arousing the attentions of his father. I hobbled into the living room and told Billy what I saw. "He looked green. I think he's throwing up."

"Too much pizza?" Charlie suggested.

Billy furrowed his eyebrows, as if he thought differently. "It might be time for us to go home," he said to Charlie.

"So soon? It's halftime."

"We can listen to the radio on the way back, but only if you turn that damn police radio down," Billy joked, still peeking at the stairs for Jacob's descent.

Charlie noticed Billy's worry. "I'm sure he just ate too much. He'll be back to normal tomorrow, worst case scenario."

"Yeah, probably," Billy agreed, though he didn't sound too sure about that.


End file.
